Case Study
North Slope Borough and
the Community of Barrow
Alaskan community standardizes on
Genetec™ Omnicast™ video surveillance to
secure all public facilities and surrounding villages
Public organizations in the Community of Barrow ban together to keep citizens safe and
spread benefits of Genetec™ Omnicast™ to nearby villages
Business challenge
Located above the Arctic Circle, the Community of Barrow is the
northernmost city in the United States. About 1,300 miles (2,100
km) south of the North Pole on the Chukchi Sea Coast, the city
is home to just over 4000 people. Barrow is also the hub for the
North Slope Borough’s seven arctic coastal villages, where another
5000 people reside.
Even as a small city, the community is still susceptible to random
acts of violence and crime. In an effort to better secure its public
facilities, the Community of Barrow decided to upgrade its city-
wide surveillance, and standardize on a more robust IP-based video
surveillance system.
After considering many solutions, the North Slope Borough
selected Genetec™ Omnicast™ IP video surveillance and
eventually enlisted the expertise of Arctic Fire & Security, a
highly-knowledgeable and certified Alaskan-based integrator for
installation and maintenance. Omnicast™ is part of the Genetec™
unified security platform, Security Center, which offers advanced
functionality like an intuitive mobile client, a map-based interface
and more capabilities.
Police department improves remote village operations
Currently, Omnicast™ is managing just over 110 cameras
throughout numerous public facilities in Barrow, including the
fire and police departments, the Children’s Youth Services (CYS)
facility, Arctic Women In Crisis (AWIC) facility and senior
citizen facility. Each organization monitors and manages its own
Omnicast™ system, reviewing and exporting video archives
when necessary.
With all the systems up and running, the North Slope Borough
Police Department (NSBPD) has expanded its surveillance to
nearby village precincts, improving its remote operations. The
NSBPD installed the Genetec™ SV-PRO, a network security
appliance which comes pre-loaded with Omnicast™, at its police
precincts in the villages of Point Hope, Nuiqsut and Kaktovik,
adding 10 to 12 cameras to each facility.
Summary
Client name: North Slope Borough
Organization size: Over 1,000 employees
Products: Security Center, Omnicast™, SV-PRO, Mobile
Industry: City-wide Surveillance
Location: Barrow, Alaska, USA
Partners: Arctic Fire & Security, Axis Communications,
Bosch and Sony
While monitoring and video playback is available at each precinct
from the SV-PRO, the video is also linked to the main police
precinct in the Community of Barrow, about 300 miles away
through the Federation™ feature. This enables all police systems
to be monitored as one virtual system, making it easier for police
officers in Barrow to assist local village officers who work alone.
Fire department watches over equipment
and narcotics
The North Slope Borough Fire Department (NSBFD) has been
able to leverage the video surveillance system to safeguard its high-
value equipment and adhere to federally-mandated laws concerning
controlled substances.
According to Shannon Esparza, Deputy Director, NSBFD, “We
house controlled substances in our fire station and they have to be
refrigerated, so we have two cameras set up to monitor the fridge.
Each paramedic swipes an access control badge, inputs their code,
and takes an allotted amount of narcotics for their mission. They do a
count before leaving and upon returning, all in front of the cameras.”
The surveillance system has helped to deter delinquent behaviour,
significantly reducing property vandalism and theft. Esparza
has used the video surveillance system to monitor the response
efficiency of her team when called out to handle a fire. One time,
 North Slope Borough and the Community of Barrow · Case Study

she noticed a hose dragging on the back of a truck. “I was able to

radio into them and let them know, avoiding any damage or loss of
equipment,” she explained.

Omnicast™ keeps barrow students safe even

from afar
When the community of Barrow began standardizing on Genetec™
Omnicast™ for all of its public facilities, the North Slope Borough
School District (NSBSD) soon followed the Borough’s lead by
installing the IP video surveillance system at its high school.
According to Sherry McKenzie, Barrow High School Principal,
NSBSD, “I don’t always have time to get to the other side of
property when someone calls to report an incident. Omnicast™ has
been a huge time-saver, because I can just log into the system and
see what happened.”
“I don’t always have time to get to the
McKenzie monitors the system when time allows, but mainly relies
on it for reference when students or staff report events. Already, the other side of property when someone
system has been helpful in identifying a prankster who tampered calls to report an incident. Omnicast™
with hallway lighting, and video has also been exported as evidence
in a more serious assault charge. The Security Center mobile app has been a huge time-saver, because I
has also been very helpful to Mckenzie, who can log into the
system from anywhere in the school, or even when travelling, by
can just log into the system and see
using her mobile phone or laptop. what happened.”
Evolving the borough-wide platform one facility
and village at a time
The next phase of deployment includes bringing all police precincts
in the five remaining villages online, and eventually expanding the
system to encompass more schools and all other public facilities.
Each organization is also adding more cameras, covering blind
spots that may have been missed in the initial implementation.
“Our community and villages are safer and more vibrant than
ever before, and we have realized numerous cost-saving efficiencies
across our public organizations with the help of Arctic Fire &
Security and Genetec™ Omnicast™. We look forward to growing
our borough-wide surveillance system and uncovering even greater
community benefits,” Mayor Charlotte E. Brower at the North
Slope Borough.

Infrastructure at a Glance
Omnicast™ is managing over 110 cameras installed in various public facilities in the Community of Barrow, where
each facility chose its preferred brand of cameras from vendors Axis Communications, Bosch and Sony. All video
is stored locally in each facility with servers ranging from 4TB to 32TB of storage. More specifically at the NSBPD
headquarters, there are two servers with 16TB of storage, which provides 30-day minimum retention. Two SV-PRO
network security appliances have been installed at three remote locations and video is federated back to the central
police headquarters in Barrow.

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